Jessica Rowe gets the last laugh as she takes Studio 10's chair

It's the "b" word that Jessica Rowe finds offensive to this day. Which is understandable, given the furore that erupted after Eddie McGuire's comments asking when the Nine Network should "bone" her from the Today show were made public.

But Rowe has had the last laugh after scoring a major television role on Network Ten's new breakfast show, Studio 10.

'Different person': Jessica Rowe is delighted to return to Ten.

"I'm still laughing - I'm happy and life is good," said Rowe, when asked what she might say to McGuire now. "You keep on smiling and you just get on with it," she added.

"I have no regrets. Sure it would be lovely if some things didn't happen and others did - but it's helped me work out who I am and it's also very much defined for me who matters and what matters in my life. For me, first and foremost, it's always my family."

Rowe's return to the Ten network, eight years after she left her role as a news presenter is all the more remarkable given the legal fight over her departure at the time. But she said she is thrilled to be returning.

"It's bizarre the way world turns sometimes and it is almost coming full circle," she said. "I'm a very different person to what I was all those years ago and Channel Ten is a very different place. So yes, it is like coming home but I've grown up since that time - I'm now married, I'm a mum, I've had all these personal ups and down, so I'm very different to how I was when I left Ten the first time around."

Rowe, who has two daughters Allegra and Giselle, said: "It's a big change for me and obviously my family, but it feels right and that is why I had to grab this opportunity."

She said her husband Peter Overton, famed as a Nine news reader and 60 Minutes correspondent, would be taking on the morning parenting duties with their girls.

"It will be a change, but what's terrific for Pete is he'll now be doing the morning shift at home, so I'm quite happy with that pay-off," Rowe said. "For many years when he was with 60 Minutes, he was away, all that kind of stuff, so for many reasons this feels right [to us] now."

Rowe said she was looking forward to working in front a live studio audience and showing all the different facets to her personality on screen, as opposed to her days on Ten as a straight-up newsreader.

"I'm far more comfortable in my own skin now, than I ever was," the 43-year-old said. "When I began my career as a news presenter, it's almost a bit like a mask you assume. Whereas now, I feel less need for a mask because I feel I've laid bare my vulnerabilities ... and felt good about that, eventually. So I feel more comfortable showing me."

Rowe described Studio 10's producer Adam Boland as a "creative powerhouse and an inspiring person to work for, because of his desire to take risks and chances on things".

She said she has met fellow panellist Ita Buttrose previously but has always been in "awe" of the iconic media personality.

"What a privilege to be working with her each day. She's such a role model for women in the media and such a trailblazer," Rowe said.